After 108 years, the Boy Scouts program is set to drop the gender from its name and re-emerge as "Scouts BSA," a more "inclusive" group that will also soon welcome girls in its ranks.

Boy Scouts of America, the parent organization of the Boy Scouts program, made the announcement Wednesday. Though the decision to toss "Boy" aside was considered controversial by some, Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said the new name came about after an "incredibly fun" deliberation.

The Girl Scouts said their organization was blindsided by the move and are planning an aggressive campaign to ramp up recruitment numbers

When I was little I broke my ankle jumping over a septic tank. A few years back I blew out my knee while cleaning salamander poop. This morning I broke and dislocated my toe by stepping on a laundry basket.

When it comes to embarrassing-yet-serious injuries, I am a freaking Triple Crown winner.

Tessablue wrote:When I was little I broke my ankle jumping over a septic tank. A few years back I blew out my knee while cleaning salamander poop. This morning I broke and dislocated my toe by stepping on a laundry basket.

When it comes to embarrassing-yet-serious injuries, I am a freaking Triple Crown winner.

I shouldn't laugh because I just had a fever for two straight days after one workout, but man, you have bad luck.

So I go into a popular SoCal restaurant, StoneFire, that does quite the take-out business for the their BBQ stuff. Upon checking out, the bill was $84 and I pulled out my trusty AmEx card and lo and behold when given the receipt to sign there was no place to add in a tip. I know that there's plenty of work that goes into getting a to-go order prepared and I certainly don't object to tipping, but I had to explain that since the advent of on-line wagering I simply have little reason to carry any cash. I did notice some large fishbowls on the counter filled with various denominations of currency but quite frankly I was pretty darn embarrassed. My waitress said it was a management decision to program the computers in such a way that no tips be made on credit cards. For the life of me I can't figure out the reason why?

I LOVE The Expanse on SyFy, and it has its two-hour season finale tonight. It's a tremendous series, with an interesting, intricate story, superior acting and great effects.
However, I am really, really upset to read that next season, The Expanse will only be shown on Amazon's streaming service. Frack.

Seattle has officially become the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants from giving plastic straws and utensils to customers in an effort to help the environment.

Starting July 1, restaurants in the Emerald City are now barred from providing customers plastic straws, cocktail picks or utensils unless someone specifically requests one. Then, a customer should be given a compostable option, according to Seattle Public Utilities.

stark wrote:Seattle has officially become the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants from giving plastic straws and utensils to customers in an effort to help the environment.

Starting July 1, restaurants in the Emerald City are now barred from providing customers plastic straws, cocktail picks or utensils unless someone specifically requests one. Then, a customer should be given a compostable option, according to Seattle Public Utilities.

What's the vent here? That a city is trying to help the environment?

My vent is that ONE city doing this is going to do basically nothing. It needs to be the whole country. But hey, maybe they'll start a trend.

stark wrote:Seattle has officially become the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants from giving plastic straws and utensils to customers in an effort to help the environment.

Starting July 1, restaurants in the Emerald City are now barred from providing customers plastic straws, cocktail picks or utensils unless someone specifically requests one. Then, a customer should be given a compostable option, according to Seattle Public Utilities.

What's the vent here? That a city is trying to help the environment?

My vent is that ONE city doing this is going to do basically nothing. It needs to be the whole country. But hey, maybe they'll start a trend.

There's a few cities in Texas that managed to implement a law curbing the obiquituous free plastic bags your purchases get bagged in, often 1 or 2 items per bag. And, one of these cities even noted a marked decrease of those used miserable bags floating in the Gulf - only for the state to pass a new container law that in essence forbids having to pay for plastic bags at the checkout. Back to square 1....

Yeah, people are the problem, but we can't get rid of people (if that we could...).

We CAN, however, get rid of plastic straws. And while that would put factory workers out of work for plastic straws, perhaps those same factories can start making paper straws, which do the same thing as plastic straws but have the added bonus of being biodegradable. There are plenty of plastic items for which there is no good alternative - but straws are definitely not one of them.